The Future: Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 146-THE TRUTH

Boruto's Residence

This is Shikadai's night. His mind is his weapon and Tao Ma is going to pay for underestimating it. For years his lies have helped him to escape the best minds in Homeworld, they have overcome the deductive skills of prodigies and eluded the finest in the Imperial guard. However, this is the first time he has pitted himself against Nara Shikadai in this arena, and he is most definitely going to regret it.

Shikadai recalls when he first heard of Tao Ma, following the incident in which Boruto was abducted from the village, having just only proposed to Sarada the same day. The next time he fought against Tao Ma, he and his cousin battled him during the war between Lara and Clyde. That day, he and Shinki were totally outmatched, their opponent their superior in every way. That was a battle on the physical plane though, Shikadai admits he cannot defeat this opponent there, but on the mental plane, that is an entirely different story.

Shikadai draws his kunai and scrapes the top layer from the wooden walls of the building that Hashirama constructed from them. He does his best to be quiet, recognising that his friends and Boruto are sleeping. After one hour, he has cleared all four walls in this room, good, now he can use them in substitute of the paper that he would desperately like in this situation.

Shikadai has a rich family history, with he and his parents having learned from some of the best. In his young days he remembers his father giving Mirai pointers on her techniques. The two of them were like siblings growing up, and he listened many times to what she was doing. Harnessing her blades with wind techniques, magnifying their cutting power many times over, a technique that her father Asuma was very familiar with. Shikadai is not so proficient as Mirai, but his mother has covered wind techniques with him on occasion, and he is more than capable of using it to enhance the power of his kunai. So, he does, he concentrates all his chakra on the tip of his kunai, using it like a pen on the hard-wooden exterior of the room.

He begins to write, even as the pain in his hand increases over time, he continues to write on the walls. He begins with the sequence of events that pertain to Tao Ma. He writes down every detail that lead to the creation of this fragile group. He writes down the events that lead to Hashirama wanting to join, the death of his wife, Naruto's mercy during the captained-six contest, the budding alliance with Clyde and the battles the two shared in Homeworld. He then does the same for Boruto, recording every motivating factor that he has learnt about him, even why his team betrayed Naruto and joined the group.

These headaches that Tsunade has experienced are an important detail, as Boruto hinted to him previously, this should have happened to everyone. Boruto is an exception to that rule, having genuinely understood 'death' himself and never having been part of the hive mind, but Hashirama should be no different.

Did Hashirama ever experience headaches?

Did Hashirama understand 'death' by himself or was he part of the hive mind?

If Hashirama understood 'death' by himself, when did he work it out?

If he didn't experience the headaches why not?

Next Shikadai considers the possible consequences of the headaches. He is by no means an expert in biology, but he understands pain. Pain is perhaps the most important factor in driving someone's motivations in life. Understanding someone's pain is important to understanding a person, that was a lesson that Lord 7th insisted the village remember. Pain was what drove Naruto to want acknowledgement. It was what made Sasuke yearn for revenge. It was what made Boruto believe Homeworld was beyond forgiveness.